Blame abortion, not IVF, for the fall in adoptions
by Ann Farmer, The Conservative Woman:
The head of the organisation representing children in care in England says that improvements in IVF are leading to fewer children being adopted.
Anthony Douglas, chief executive of the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass), says: ‘As a choice, adoption is competing with lots of other ways of having children.’
IVF success rates on the NHS have risen from 7 to 29 per cent for under-35s, with some private clinics claiming rates of up to 56 per cent. It is unsurprising that extravagant claims about IVF ‘success’ emanate from the fertility industry itself, but both figures relate to under-35s, whereas the trend today is for later parenthood, at which stage individuals can face not only age-related fertility decline but also a legacy of multiple partners, sexually transmitted diseases, smoking, drinking and, most significantly, decades of artificial contraception and possibly abortion.
‘The last-mentioned factor is surely a significant and obvious factor in the decline of babies available for adoption, and one reason perhaps why older couples embark on IVF. It is surprising that Mr Douglas should ignore this fact, since he was adopted, and at 69 years old he was born well before the 1967 Abortion Act made abortion the first option rather than the last – although in many cases it is just as desperate a ‘choice’.
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